Thursday’s floods have dealt a major blow to Serbia and it will take at least four to five years for the country’s agriculture to recover, Serbian Minister without Portfolio responsible for emergency situations Velimir Ilic said Friday.

“This is a very huge blow to the budget, as will be seen after the extent of the damage is assessed. It will definitively take four to five years for the agriculture to recover from this,” Ilic said for Radio Television of Serbia (RTS).

He said that the floods washed away crops and people suffered great losses.

The minister pointed out that rescue operations are still underway and are being carried out in very difficult circumstances, and he is satisfied about the good coordination between competent services, institutions and the people.

Many of the cut off places could only be reached by back roads, and with the help of the army and the police wherever it was possible, and there was no electricity as well, Ilic said.

The rescue operations were literally fights for human lives, and everyone taking part showed incredible strength and willingness to help, said Ilic.

Ilic said the very bad state of affairs was not due to faulty flood protection systems, but rather to “the abnormally high water levels” that could not be controlled.